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"Mm."
—Layla, Azure Striker Gunvolt 3
"Allow me to draw out...your true power!"
—Luxia, Azure Striker Gunvolt 3
Layla is a member of ATEMS and a major antagonist in Azure Striker Gunvolt 3, and one of the protagonists of its Epilogue ATEMS scenario. While she's not a combatant like the ATEMS Knights, she's almost always seen at the side of ATEMS's leader, ZedΩ.
Her Septima is The Djinn, which is capable of reviving and mentally influencing other Adepts with songs, extremely similar to The Muse. Much like Joule's Muse power manifesting separately as Lumen, Layla's manifests as Luxia,[3][1][2] who sings various songs and is a boss in Epilogue ATEMS. Luxia's name is never revealed in the main story.
Luxia is also one of the singers in the rhythm game GUNVOLT RECORDS Cychronicle and one of the protagonists of the drama CD Mirage Party.
Website Description[]
Layla's profile[]
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English site
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Japanese site
Layla is a young girl who is always seen at ZedΩ's side. She uses her Septima, "The Djinn," Luxia, to assist in further ZedΩ and ATEMS's goals.
Although she and ZedΩ are generally on the same wavelength, Layla does not speak much for herself, making her difficult to communicate with.
ＺＥＤΩ．（ジエド）の傍に付き従う謎の少女。
主にＺＥＤΩ．（ジエド）のために能力を用い、《電子の踊精（サイバージーン）》ルクシアの歌でＡＴＥＭＳ（アテムス）の活動を支えている。
意思疎通は取れるものの、あまり自分から喋る事は無く、コミュニケーションが取り難い。
Luxia's profile[]
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English site
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Japanese site
Luxia is Layla's Septima. She is of a similar type to "The Muse," Lumen, and is able to bring forth various powers with her song, such as enhancing others' abilities. "The Djinn" is also capable of performing reconnaissance at long distances, unlike "The Muse." It is possible that "The Djinn" is a more powerful Septima.*
She has a carefree personality and does not pay much mind to anyone other than ZedΩ.
レイラの第七波動（セブンス）。
電子の謡精（サイバーディーヴァ）と同じ感応系の能力であり、歌であらゆる能力を励起、強化させることができる。また、超長距離での遠隔操作や偵察など電子の謡精（サイバーディーヴァ）の制限を超える能力運用も可能である。
自由奔放な性格であり、ＺＥＤΩ．（ジエド）以外の人間にはあまり興味を示さない。
*In Japanese, it says "She can also use her powers in a way that overcomes the limitations of The Muse, such as remote control over very long distances or scouting."
Appearance[]
Layla is a small girl with pale skin, light blonde hair, and red eyes with light-colored crescent moon shapes in her pupils. Uniquely, her eyelashes are the same blonde color as her hair. She is always seen wearing a black rabbit-eared hoodie with white and orange patterns, with the sleeves being much longer than her arms, and a smaller, yellow vest and shorts underneath. Attached to her hoodie is a brooch with three golden feathers, unlike the other members of ATEMS who only have one or two.
Luxia resembles a young adult version of Layla with light brown skin and a patch of red hair on her forehead. She wears a costume with purple, mauve, yellow and gold highlights with two white strips running from her torso to stopping just over her feet, a long blue-and-pink "veil" falling down from the back of her head, a gold, purple and white headpiece resembling rabbit ears complete with earrings, and ornate gold high heels.
Gallery[]
Main article: Layla/Gallery
Personality[]
Layla is a person of incredibly few, if any, words. Almost all of her dialogue amounts to noises like "mm" and "hm," though it appears that ZedΩ is able to understand her. It even applies to her very own Image Pulses. She does bear some kind of attachment to ZedΩ, given how she calls out to him before reviving him when GV and Kirin defeat him in the Sunrise Palace.
Luxia is mildly more expressive than Layla is, commanding Primal Dragons to "dance for [her]" as she revives them, and bidding the Knights (or Kirin) to keep fighting when they get revived.
History[]
Main Game[]
Very little is known about Layla's past, or just about anyone else in ATEMS due to the suddenness of their appearance in ASG3.
From time to time, as Kirin and GV are suppressing rampaging Primal Dragons, Layla will invoke Djinn's power, reviving the seemingly-defeated foes with her song.
Layla's first true appearance is beside ZedΩ as they ride ballistic missiles to breach the country's barrier, though she remains one of few words or actions beyond showing her summoning of Djinn and her disappearance as ZedΩ clashes with Kirin and GV.
Layla reappears when Kirin and GV finally make it to the heart of Sunrise Palace, the fortress ATEMS has made of the UTU Media Tower. As it turns out, Layla's Djinn septima being used on the Primal Dragons was all part of an experiment. To see if her Septima could influence their minds and abilities, which in turn meant Layla could control Moebius, the true ruler of Primal Dragons and wielder of the heretofore unknown Astral Order, an "Octima" power beyond even Septima that lets the wielder manipulate the future. The plan was to get Moebius under control using Djinn, and use Astral Order to mitigate the damage that would ensue, as Moebius' inevitable awakening would saturate the world with Dragon Radiation, and therefore cause an unprecedented outbreak of Primal Dragons.
This plan goes awry when Kirin and GV defeat ZedΩ, as Moebius breaches its seal and awakens, seemingly disturbed by the collision of Azure Striker and Golden Trillion. Layla later empowers Kirin with Djinn's Wish, which combined with Golden Trillion's power lets her resist the effects of Astral Order and stop Moebius, who has now possessed GV.
Layla is last seen in the True Ending, by ZedΩ's side as usual. ATEMS reached a peace agreement with Sumeragi, and returned to their home country to deal with the Primal Dragons there.
Epilogue ATEMS[]
As it turns out, ATEMS did not, in fact, leave the country just yet. In pursuit of the Azure Spirits left behind when Gunvolt vanished with Moebius, Layla and the Knights accompany ZedΩ in finding the spirits, her Djinn Septima being particularly adept at tracking them.
The last of the Azure Spirits are tracked to the Sumeragi Futures Institute, where both Moebius and the Primal Dragon Gunvolt were sealed away. Kirin gets both ZedΩ and Layla access, the former because he wants the Azure Spirits, the latter because her Djinn's ability to detect Septimal power will be of use.
Deep inside the facility, the three of them find the Primal Dragon Gunvolt, or rather a pseudo-Image Pulse of it formed by the Azure Spirits. Bidding Layla stay back with Kirin, ZedΩ defeats the phantasmal beast, but the Azure Spirits suddenly act up and coalesce around Layla. The Azure Spirits hijack Layla's consciousness and her Djinn Septima, causing Luxia to begin attacking ZedΩ.
After Layla was freed from the influence of the Azure Spirits, all of the Azure Spirits fly away. However, when Zed and Kirin check on Layla, she had kept one within her sleeve. Layla and Zed decide to entrust it to Kirin, and having completed their research, prepare to leave the country for real. Before ATEMS departs, Layla speaks for the first time since they've known her to bid Kirin farewell. This shocks almost everyone, seemingly even Luxia. Upon this, Zed remarks how lively things have been with Kirin and the Knights around.
Other Appearances[]
Card-en-Ciel[]
"Mm."--Layla
"O Dragon, dance for me!"--Luxia
Layla and Luxia are among the Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 characters featured in the rogue-lite card battling RPG Card-en-Ciel, with Layla having a support card, and Luxia being one of the game's Muses with a card that summons her to sing and grant special abilities when conditions are met.
| Card | Character | Effect | Cost | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Priestess of ATEMS | Layla | Select one card from your hand and apply Suspend to it. If it is a Convert card, Convert it. (Special: Select one card from your hand and apply Suspend to it. If it is a Convert card, Convert it. Gain 2 Cost.) |
0 | Right |
| Boundless Myth | Luxia | Cond: Convert the same card 2 times. Effect: Cost -1 for each card that has been Converted twice or more. |
N/A | N/A |
Abilities[]
Main Game[]
The Djinn (or Cyber-Jinn) Septima bears a resemblance to the powers of the Muse, as it essentially revives and empowers Adepts through the power of song. Luxia can activate Djinn's Wish (or Song of Jinn) similar to the Muse's Anthem that empowers Gunvolt.
The chance of Djinn's Wish activating is affected by the level of the Kudos song currently playing, and is almost guaranteed for level 3 (where Traces is playing) except for certain stages where this is impossible. When Djinn's power is activated, the BGM is overridden with Boundless Myth, but can change to Traces if enough Kudos have been earned afterwards.
During the fight against the empowered Adepts, Anthem would always activate shall Kirin fall in battle. Kudos gain during Anthem is still frozen, but as opposed to activating Anthem normally, here it does not prevent earning the level rank, and an additional Image Pulse would be earned for the "Resurrection" bonus regardless. As a result, the appearance of Luxia can be considered to give extra rewards (i.e. Kudos and Image Pulse) with zero risk.
Epilogue ATEMS[]
Djinn is able to use Djinn's Wish to revive ZedΩ should he fall in battle, similar to Anthem. Djinn's Wish fully restores HP, grants infinite Wings, and gives ZedΩ a forcefield that automatically repels or destroys any enemy projectiles that Kirin's sword or Gunvolt's Flashfield can.
Boss Battle Skills[]
*Note: All attack names except Lunatic Swords are unofficial.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Luxia will always evade any attack made against her and take no damage, even to Special Skills. However, every time Luxia is struck, she sheds Azure Spirits. By attacking these Azure Spirits with sword attacks or skills, they'll shatter and deduct health from Luxia's HP bar. If not destroyed in time, the Azure Spirits will become indestructible and fly back to Luxia as projectiles. The Azure Spirits will also vanish if Luxia teleports. | |
| Luxia summons several copies of her, who then gather to the location of the real one, leaving behind sparks that later drop down. | |
| Like Twilight Spark, the copies appear and gather to Luxia, except this time she scatters several crescents diagonally from either the top left or the top right of the arena, and then switches sides to do the attack once more. | |
| The attack is performed either when Luxia immediately appears at the top sides of the arena, or is a follow-up to any other attack, after which she flies to the top sides, as well. After ~5 seconds pass, Luxia summons 5 Azure Spirits that rotate around her and swoops down to do a ground sweep. She does this 3 times before flying to the top sides of the arena. Starting from phase 3, Luxia may summon a clone of her at the opposite side of the arena, and then the two of them proceed to do the same pattern. Once the attack ends, the clone's Azure Spirits gather to Luxia. | |
| Luxia appears either at the left or right side of the arena, and then summons two pairs of crescents. As the pair moves towards Zed, it rotates in an 8 shape. | |
(ルナティックソード) |
Luxia's Special Skill. She summons Glaives from the background that begin to orbit around her. She'll fly twice across the screen with the Glaives orbiting her. Luxia is invincible and cannot be tagged in this state. Afterwards, she places Glaives across the top of the arena, and rain lasers from the Glaives. During this part of the skill, Luxia is once again vulnerable to attacks and tags. As Luxia's health falls, this attack will become a regular part of her moveset. She'll either do the entirety of SP without the animation of Glaives rushing to her side from the background, or immediately skip to the part where the Glaives cover the top part of the arena. |
Mirage Party[]
Some time after the events of Gunvolt 3 and Epilogue ATEMS, Luxia had gained the ability to teleport to Potential Worlds created by Moebius. She seems to be capable of transporting others along with her, but after leaving a Potential World, the memories related to her are erased from its inhabitants. However, Luxia seems to retain her own memories of the experiences from those worlds.
Special Skill Chants[]
Lunatic Swords
O azure rays of moonlight, maddening
Master reigns over banquet of corpses
Dance together in destruction
LUNATIC SWORDS
Designer Comments[]
Source: Dengeki Online interview about Gunvolt 3 character design and illustration
(Disclaimer: Edited machine translation)
Layla[]
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English
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Japanese
The concept of Layla was that she was a mysterious girl who was ZedΩ's follower and rarely spoke. Since there was not much information on the design, I decided to make Layla the moon, as opposed to ZedΩ the sun, and added the element of a rabbit to make her look cute.
I thought that if she is a priestess on the ATEMS side, it would not be surprising if she has some kind of astrological ability to read the stars, so I also included celestial imagery in her clothing. I had several ideas for the color, but I decided on a light pigmented girl because she has the most mystique.
--Munehiro Araki
レイラはジエドの従者でほとんど喋らない不思議な少女、という感じのコンセプトでした。デザイン的には情報が少なかったので、ジエドが太陽ならレイラは月として、転じてウサギの要素を入れることで可愛い方向にもっていきました。
ATEMS側の巫女的な存在ならば、何か占星術のような星を読む力があってもおかしくないなと考えて服装に天体のイメージも入っています。色についてはいくつか案を出しましたが、神秘性が一番あるという理由で色素の薄い少女になりました。
--荒木宗弘
Luxia[]
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English
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Japanese
Luxia is called a cyber djinn and is positioned as a kind of Lumen on the enemy side. She is the third cyber diva, after Lumen and Lola, but the image had to be different from either of them, and she had to be as iconic as Lumen and Lola, which was a very high hurdle.
It was already decided that ZedΩ was of Middle Eastern descent, and from there it was decided to go with a belly dance direction, but it took a long time to perfect it...
In the end, we settled on the atmosphere of a djinn in a moonlit night. If Layla is a cute bunny, Luxia is a sexy bunny. It was difficult to change the fantasy-like atmosphere back to a science fiction atmosphere.
--Munehiro Araki
ルクシアはサイバージーンと呼ばれていて、敵側のモルフォのような存在という位置づけです。サイバーディーヴァ枠はモルフォ、RoRoについで3人目なんですが、そのどっちとも違うイメージにしなけらばならないし、モルフォやRoRoに勝るとも劣らないアイコニックな存在にしないといけないというのが非常にハードルが高かったです。
ジエドが中東系なのは決まっていたので、そこからベリーダンスの方向性はどうかというところまでは定まったんですが完成形までもっていくのに時間がかかりました……。
最終的には月夜を纏う魔人、といった雰囲気にまとまりました。レイラが可愛いウサギならルクシアはセクシーなウサギって感じです。ファンタジーっぽくなってしまうのをSFの雰囲気に戻すのが苦労しました。
--荒木宗弘
Musical Themes[]
| Title | Context | Composers | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basking in Sunlight (日向のそばで, Next to the Sun) |
Plays in certain cutscenes, and has similarities to Boundless Myth. | Ippo Yamada, Aoi Takeda |
Trivia[]
- Given her design elements, Layla's motif is almost certainly the Major Arcana XVIII, The Moon, matching the Arcana theme of most other Gunvolt 3 characters.
- Djinn (singular term djinni) refers to spirits from Arabian legend that are normally invisible to the naked eye, and help or hinder humans as they please.
- Layla's rabbit motif combined with Djinn's moon theming evoke references to the "moon rabbit", a legend in Asian countries based on seeing the image of a rabbit in the dark spots on the Moon's surface, similar to the Western version, the "man in the moon".
- Layla's Skill Image Pulse spawning a healing drink could be another reference to moon rabbit legends, as some variants have the rabbit making medicine or even an elixir of life. The drink boosting credit gain could also be a reference to creating gold from lesser materials, a feat considered one of the holy grails of alchemy alongside making the elixir of life.
- A piece of near-final concept art shown in the Gunvolt 3 artbook refers to Layla as "albino girl." Layla being albino would simultaneously explain her red eyes and light-colored skin, hair, and eyelashes. Luxia having brown skin may imply that Layla would as well if not for her albinism.
- At 130cm (4'3"), Layla is the shortest character in Gunvolt 3. This height also matches Joule, Mytyl, and Zonda.
- The pre-release secrecy surrounding Layla and Luxia was at the request of series director Yoshihisa Tsuda, who wished to totally surprise everyone.[4] Aside from the Amiami pre-order bonus which already prominently featured her with Lumen, neither Luxia nor Layla made any appearances pre-release, the Japanese eshop page only updated with their cast listing days before release, and in the limited edition soundtrack Luxia is only credited as "Cyberjinn." Prior to version updates, even the in-game credits of GV3 only listed Luxia as "The Djinn".
- One theory about Layla's laconic nature is that it plays to the sun-moon duality she has with ZedΩ, the silent night to his bold radiance.
- Luxia is the only boss in ASG3 who is exclusive to Epilogue ATEMS.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Japanese Nintendo eShop page
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gunvolt 3 Limited Edition artbook
- ↑ Tweet by Rico Sasaki
- ↑ Tweet by Aizu
- ↑ Spelled as "Riko Sasaki" in Gunvolt 3 credits